The 2007 competition received 109 entries from over eighty binders.
The entrants came from all over the world, including the UK, USA,
Canada, Argentina, Australia, Estonia, The Netherlands, New Zealand,
Germany, France, Israel, Russia, Belgium, Italy, The Czech Republic,
Switzerland, Spain and Finland.

The judging took place on 16th June and the judges were Lester Capon,
Fellow of Designer bookbinders, Maureen Duke,
Society President and Trevor Lloyd, Bookbinder
and editor of BOOKBINDER.

The winners of the competition were announced at the Conference
dinner, which took place at the National Railway
Museum in York on Saturday 11th August 2007.

Scandinavia is linked culturally, historically and in many more ways. As it is my cultural heritage I wanted to create a piece of work to reflect this, based on a neutral palette to represent the interlocking of this part of Europe. The images are symbolic representing land, ice, snow and water.

The binding combines a contemporary drop-spine structure with an ancient Japanese multi-section technique, sewn with four needles. The glue-less spine of the text block preserves the integrity of the pages and art.

Both book and slipcase are covered with Iris cloth and Bugra paper. The delicate Kaji paper was attached to the boards with drymount tissue. Text printed from polymer plates on a Vandercook Press #4. Paper – mould made Johannot and Japanese Kaji, hand washed with sumi ink. The snow was printed with oil-based ink to act as a resist for the wash.

Cased Binding

First PrizeCathy AdelmanPunctuation: A Printer's Study

Cathy Adelmanfrom Malibu, California, USAProfessional

Punctuation: A Printer's Study

Full leather three-piece case binding sewn on tapes, Graphite edge, leather endbands. Boards are of plexiglass covered in leather allowing a 'window' to the suede flyleaves, which have leather onlays.

Second PrizeYehuda MiklafMichael Kohlhass

Yehuda Miklaffrom Jeruselum, IsraelProfessional

Michael Kohlhass by Heinrich von Kleist

Full black goatskin with black onlays.

Restored / Conserved
Binding

First PrizeJohn RichardsBook of Common Prayer/Holy Bible

John Richardsfrom Leamington Spa, UKProfessional

Book of Common Prayer/Holy Bible

Full morocco binding with full gilt spine and boards. The original binding was completely broken - all that remained were the damaged boards. No trace of the spine remained.

Leather and board papers removed; board corners repaired by splicing in new sections of millboard. The book was re-sewn and bound in full morocco. The original leather sides and board papers were then re-instated.

Original Victorian maroon cloth binding with blind stamped decoration on front and back boards and title embossed in gold on the spine. Decoration embossed on spine around the title.

The front and back boards had come loose from the spine. There was white masking tape residue on the spine. The edges of the boards were torn and tattered and the board was exposed. There was masking tape inside the book and insect damage at the top of the pages throughout. Many of the tops of the pages were torn. Original flyleaves missing.